Paul: No repeal of civil rights law

Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul – and the GOP leaders newly lashed to him – are scrambling to control the damage from interviews in which he’s questioned whether the government should prevent private businesses from discriminating against racial minorities.

Paul issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying he was the victim of baseless liberal attacks, and he stated “unequivocally” that he “will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

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And in a damage-control interview with conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, Paul seemed to indicate he actually was supportive of at least some elements of the original law.

"There was a need for federal intervention to say that you can't have segregation, that we shouldn't be doing that," he said.

There was no rush in Washington to lend Paul a hand. Instead, GOP leaders seemed more anxious to ensure that the Senate candidate didn't hijack the party's message and send it back 45 years.

The top two Senate Republican leaders, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl of Arizona, declined to say whether they agreed with Paul early in the day. When McConnell’s camp finally did issue a statement, it was from his spokesman, not from the Senate minority leader himself – and it was frosty.

“Among Sen. McConnell’s most vivid memories and most formative events in his career was watching his boss, Sen. John Sherman Cooper, help pull together the votes to break the filibuster and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said. “He has always considered the law a monumental achievement for the country and is glad to hear Dr. Paul supports it as well.”

There’s no love lost between McConnell and Paul, the anti-establishment, tea-party-backed insurgent who thrashed the minority leader’s hand-picked primary candidate – though a McConnell insider said Wednesday the two camps had begun to reconcile.

"Rejecting a fundamental provision of the Civil Rights Act is a rejection of where we have come in the last 50 years as Americans," Conway told POLITICO in an interview. "I find it very troubling."

Conway also sought to use Paul's views on desegregation to broaden the case against the libertarian-leaning eye doctor, suggesting his anti-government views were out of the mainstream.

"The problem with Rand Paul is that he has such a narrow and rigid philosophy that it gets him into trouble on issues," said the Democrat. "And it's not just on the Civil Rights Act — look at his comments on the Americans with Disability Act on OSHA regulations. So what about consumer protection, what about the FDA? Does he think business ought to be completely left alone by the federal government? Does he want to leave Wall Street alone? Look where that got us."

Conway said he had no plans at the moment to air TV or radio ads against Paul on the Civil Rights Act but was doing a slew of local and national media interviews on the topic.

Senior Senate Republicans seemed to be taken aback by Paul’s original comments, and GOP operatives worried about the prospect of a national debate relitigating a law that’s been on the books for almost all of Paul’s life.

Paul dodged Wednesday night when MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow asked him whether he would have supported the landmark 1964 act.